Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology is one of the oldest technical institutes in India. Founded as the University College of Engineering (UCE) in Burla, India in 1956, the college celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2006. The change in name from UCE to Veer Surendra Sai University occurred on February 12, 2009 as a result of a move to accord the institute unitary university status. On August 12, 1956 a long held dream of many prominent personalities (including the then chief minister of Orissa, Mr. Biju Patnaik) was fulfilled, just after 2 years of establishment of the IIT in Kharagpur. UCE started with three departments - Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. At that time the current building was not finished so the college started in a building now known as the "Bharati Club" and students lived in quarters of the Hirakud Dam project. This technical institute has graduated more than 16,000 engineers placed in organizations (such as NASA, GM, DRDO, Microsoft, Airbus, NALCO, GE, HAL), and in institutions (like MIT, Wharton, Stanford University, IIT).